‘Weekly Reader’ Shuts Down; Scholastic Lays off 55

It’s a sad day in school rooms and for those of us who grew up with it, we’re shedding a proverbial tear, too. Weekly Reader, a staple for 100 years, is going to cease its operations and fold into Scholastic News.

As reported by The New York Post, Scholastic purchased the school newspaper and they’re going to fold it into Scholastic News. Net net: The 60 employees at their White Plains, N.Y. location will be whittled down to five.

Sadly, the demise of the weekly pub follows the footsteps we’ve seen all too recently with other publications as well. As pointed out in the piece, they were struggling with print world challenges and were under pressure to create digital editions. Add decreased school budgets into the mix along with the new owners, thereby creating the perfect storm.

Weekly Reader and its predecessor, My Weekly Reader, have roots back to the original launch in 1902! They were read by two-thirds of children in grammar school and if that wasn’t enough, it was read by 13 million subscribers ranging from all of its editions from pre-school age through 12th graders.

A Scholastic spokesperson told the newspaper, “We are confident that the combined Scholastic News/Weekly Reader team will now offer an even better news and information experience in print and digital formats for teachers and students.”

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